UN blames Israel for attacks on schools during Gaza War

A Palestinian boy rides his bicycle in front of a house that witnesses said was destroyed by Israeli shelling during a 50-day war last summer, in the east of Gaza City April 27, 2015. (Reuters / Mohammed Salem) / Reuters

A UN inquiry has found that Israeli security forces conducted seven deadly attacks on UN schools that were being used as shelters during last year’s Gaza offensive. The conflict killed 44 Palestinians and injured 227.

The independent board of inquiry found that Israel was
responsible for damage to seven UN facilities in Gaza during
Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014. Palestinian
militants were also exposed to have used three UN facilities for
storing weapons and for shooting rockets and mortars.

“I deplore the fact that at least 44 Palestinians were killed
as a result of Israeli actions and at least 227 injured at United
Nations premises being used as emergency shelters,” UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon wrote in a cover letter
accompanying a summary of the inquiry's findings.

The full report, released on Monday, is 207 pages and is
“top-secret," but a 27-page summary was released by the
UN on Monday.

Schools in Gaza are considered UN facilities and according to
international humanitarian law and the Geneva Convection cannot
be targeted.

At the fourth school, for girls, hit by the Israeli military no
warning was given.“No prior warning had been given by the
government of Israel of the firing of 155 MM high explosive
projectiles on, or in the surrounding area of the school,”
the report said.

The Secretary General announced in November last year that an
independent inquiry would be set up to investigate the damage
caused to UN installations in Gaza, as well as when these places
were used to hide weapons.

The inquiry was headed by an international team and was headed by
Patrick Cammaert, a former senior officer in the Dutch military
who also served as Ban’s military adviser and commander of UN
forces in the Congo.

Israel had lobbied the UN to delay the investigation on the
grounds that they were conducting their own inquiries into
Operation Protective Edge. Although they as well as Hamas – the
Islamist group that governs Gaza – said they would cooperate
fully with the inquiry.

The war in Gaza last July killed more than 2,100 Palestinians,
many of them civilians and children. 67 Israeli soldiers and six
civilians inside Israel were also killed.